UNFCCC weighs blockchain use cases to fight climate change with Cointelegraph

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) along with climate change entrepreneurs and Cointelegraph delved into discussing the role of emerging technologies such as blockchain in solving global issues including climate change.

During the DigitalArt4Climate press conference, Cointelegraph editor-in-chief Kristina Cornèr took over the stage to understand the various blockchain initiatives that actively fight climate change. Starting off the conversation was Anna Dart, a digital avatar by DigitalArt4Climate who shared the idea of bringing together artists to inspire climate change:

“We are blessed with having the opportunity to impact our world with the transformational power of art and eco-friendly blockchain technology together.”

As part of the initiative, the digital arts of the finalists will be exhibited as clean nonfungible tokens (NFT) across various UN initiatives related to climate change. Miroslav Polzer, the founder and CEO of IAAI and the strategic director of the Climate Chain Coalition, took over the conversation as he explained the next phase of the initiative — which involves mobilizing the resources or funds.

Polzer explained that the sale of the clean NFT aims to support United Nations’ youth-focused Sustainable Development Goals initiative — with 15% of the revenue going to the artists, 35% to the Youth Climate Action Fund. The remaining 50% will be dedicated to institutional and technological infrastructure for non-party stakeholders including DigitalArt4Climate management, the United Citizens Organization DAO set-up, education and GloCha GoodLifeApp. 

Diving into the technical aspects of NFTs for climate change, Irina Karagyaur, the head of ecosystem growth and BD at Unique Networks, spoke about bringing back the power to creators and people.

She supported Unique Networks’ decision to build proof-of-stake (PoS) NFTs over Polkadot citing the need for a lower carbon footprint, especially when fighting climate change:

“In general, the industry is transitioning to PoS to enable climate and ESG initiatives and to improve and reduce energy consumption by 99%.”

Dolphine Magero, the CEO of Global Youth Climate Action Fund Institution, too, highlighted the importance of including artists that wish to join in on the global fight against climate change.

According to Karagyaur, minting an NFT on Unique equates to emitting a carbon footprint of a single human breath, which can be used to power climate action. Eyeing widespread adoption of the technology, Unique Networks launched an open NFT marketplace wherein artists can mint eco-friendly NFTs to power various climate change initiatives:

“There is a blue ocean for doing good, please reach out to us, pitch us your idea and be part of the movement.”

Related: Iota Foundation joins Dell to develop real-time carbon footprint tracking

Dell’s edge solutions team announced the onboarding of Iota Foundation, climate change-focused technology company ClimateCHECK and BioE to develop a solution on top of Dell’s in-house Data Confidence Fabric (DCF) and Project Alvarium initiatives.

— Dell Edge & Telecom (@Dell_Edge) June 6, 2022

Mathew Yarger, head of sustainability at the Iota Foundation, stated:

“Transparency and trust in data is paramount for addressing the global issues of climate change and transitioning to climate action.”